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Google's flu trends project illustrates the power of this idea. Google pegs down regional flu trends faster than the CDC, who has the advantage of pulling data
by aresant 16y ago
Google's flu trends project illustrates the power of this idea.
Google pegs down regional flu trends faster than the CDC, who has the advantage of pulling data from thousands of regional hospitals, etc.
Simple idea, great illustration in original paper:
http://www.google.org/about/flutrends/manuscript.pdf http://www.google.org/about/flutrends/manuscript.pdf
Video version:
http://www.google.org/flutrends/about/how.html http://www.google.org/flutrends/about/how.html
- kvs 16y agoOne of the reasons CDC can't predict as quickly as Google can is because it takes weeks for data "from thousands of regional hospitals, etc." to get to CDC.
- mahmud 16y agoNot to mention that there are more top-notch data engineers in a Google cafeteria at any given moment, than there are in the entire CDC payroll.
- iamelgringo 16y agoNot only that, but hospitals have to wait for confirmed laboratory test results before they report then to the CDC. That kind of reporting is certainly not done in real time.